Children In Vietnam

Here I am, crouching in front of a temple in Hue, surrounded by children. They squeal, I smile. They tug at me, I hug them. When my guide enters the courtyard and sees me, he marches toward me, beside himself. He pulls me up from the spot where I am, a small child like them. “Watch your purse,” he hisses.

He’s not unkind. He just knows how children can be with tourists. But I’m not afraid. If they take something from me, more power to them. I shouldn’t be such a naive soul, should I?, for letting them dupe me like that. It’s the price I’m willing to pay to be with children, even if they’re not my own.

But the truth is, these kids don’t even try to take my things. They want to test their broken English and throw me some universal signs. Peace, love, all that. At this point on a trip to Vietnam, I need all the peace and love I can get. I notice children everywhere I go. I am beyond homesick.

Fast forward to today. Em packs Froggy and Meow. Froggy is a frog pillow that presently rests in the space between me and Em. His green warmth at my side assures me as our plane lifts from the tarmac and begins its bumpy ascent. Dee packs no stuffed toys, although this morning she took Merry, the horse she’s had since age three or four, to stay with Jim for the almost three weeks we’ll be gone. We’ll be gone. Me and my girls. Finally. In Vietnam.
This is something I’ve always done with my girls. Not the international travel, but whisking them away, the three of us sans Daddy. I’ve taken them to Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, where we tried unsuccessfully to put up a tent in the wind and ended up walking into the administration office and sheepishly asking for a room. We’ve been to Santa Monica, at the Hotel California, and when we drove into the parking lot from the airport—you won’t believe it!—that Eagles tune was playing on the rental car radio.

We’ve gone to Denver, with my sister and her kids, and also taken a road trip with them to San Francisco via Las Vegas. In Taos, the girls and I stayed in Mabel‘s room at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, and I didn’t tell them that my blog partner had once seen the ghost of Mabel in that very same room.

But those adventures pale in comparison to the three plane rides it will take to get us to Ho Chi Minh City. One of the flights is 13 or 14 hours long. I try not to dwell on it but wonder if I’ll be able not to when I have an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old sitting next to me. Not to mention Froggy.
And this is just the beginning. I can’t wait to see my girls’ reactions when I take them to the crowded colorful market where women tug at your sleeve and say “Madam, Madam!” or when we eat a steaming bowl of rice noodles and chicken for breakfast or morning glory sauteed in garlic for lunch. Will they agree that Vietnamese food is the best in the world?

We’ll float down the Mekong Delta, travel by domestic plane to a beach town I’ve heard about but never been to, stay in a luxury two-bedroom apartment right in the heart of bustling Saigon. All month long as the trip looms closer, I drive them around our hometown and tell them that driving on the streets of Saigon is nothing like Corrales. I want them to feel the chaos, the aliveness of it all. To see how a place half a world away wakes up, eats, lives, go to sleep. Is.
We are on the plane now. Em shows me a photo she just snapped with her cell phone camera of the landscape out the window of our plane, somewhere west of the Grand Canyon. The image on her small screen resembles those photos of Earth as seen from outer space. There’s the curve of the terrain, layers of atmosphere growing from light to dark blue as you move away from the land toward the expansive sky.

This is like us, I think, in the world, high above it all. On our way to places beyond.

13 Responses

I don’t need my drops for dry eyes this morning after reading this post. Your pictures are so alive with love and joy. Taking this trip with your girls is absolutely over the top, and sending your post from the airplane as you head out — what a brave new world we live in!

Thank you for sharing these photos. Just lovely. The face of the boy monk is haunting.

Have a lovely time with your daughters. They’re so lucky to have an adventurous mom. And you’re so lucky they’re still young enough to travel all over with you. I’m working on getting my 32 year old daughter to travel with me this year, before she succeeds in her quest to get pregnant. I know once the baby is here, we won’t have much one on one time for years.
I cherish the times she and I traveled, just the two of us, before I remarried.

Well, I can comment as a visitor but can’t log on as an administrator—ah, such is the challenge of using WordPress (and I can’t get at all into Facebook) from a Communist country. But who cares!!!??? We’re in a Communist country!! Woo hoo. We made it. The girls were traveling pros. Not a whimper, not a “I don’t feel good,” not a thing. They made me so proud. Osmosis. That’s all I can figure, because this is their first international trip. Wow, I’m taking them everywhere.

We drove from the airport to the apartment with the windows rolled down (I never do that when I’m here alone). The smells, the not-so-hot air. 78% and humid. Not bad. But that’s nighttime. Day should be hotter. Em said “It’s crazy out there, Mom.” and you know what, it was actually a very calm evening. Wait ’til tomorrow!

Had a bowl of pho for dinner, soothing for a long sleep. Almost 1a so signing off.

I heard from ybonesy and she wanted me to let everyone know that she and the girls made it safely to Vietnam. She said the girls were true adventurers and did well on the long flight! yb will check in on red Ravine when she can. I’m sure she’s resting now, since she’s about (if I remember correctly) 12 hours ahead of us here in the Midwest. You can adjust for your time zones! (Will look forward to hearing from you as you are able, yb.)

ybonesy, sent you an email on the WP thing tonight. Hope it helps. Your daughters take after their mother! Traveling the world. Can’t wait to hear about your adventures. Love these photographs. Your photos always come alive on these trips to the other side of the world. (For more of yb’s travels, check out the links in this post.)

Thanks, QM. It worked. I’m so glad that you saved those instructions. Vietnam also blocks FB. I found a great set of instructions via a WP blog on how to bypass that blockage, too. You can use a lite version of FB, which I did first, but then I tried the proxy workaround, and surprisingly that worked! Pretty cool. I tell you, where there’s a will there’s a way. 8)

The girls are loving what they’ve seen thus far of Vietnam. I have tomorrow off from work, so we’re heading to the Mekong Delta. Dee’s already hatching plans for a return trip, next times staying a much longer period of time. (I think she’s hinting an an expat assignment.)

yb, so glad it worked! The old workaround. Wow, good for Dee! They seem right at home. Have fun on the Delta. Will catch up more on red Ravine tomorrow. Had Poetry & Meditation Group tonight and getting to bed late. Keep checking in when you can. Look forward to it.

Hey lissa, how great to see you here! It’s been a long time! Hope you’re doing well.

The Mekong Delta trip was so cool. I have a new post in the works with photos from the trip.

Today we met with one of a work colleague and friend, and her daughter. We had a wonderful Saigon sort of day of eating, shopping, shopping some more, eating, and shopping. 8) And of course, talking and just enjoying ourselves.

My nieces arrive tonight. They should be in Hong Kong right about now. I’ll go to the airport at about 10p or so to get them. Exciting!